Midwinter
by MagicSweepsMeOffMyFeet
Summary: My story written for the December TPE: Writing Challenge. Briar brings a woman home for Midwinter and the girls are not impressed.


**A/N: For the December TPE: Writing Challenge forum. It's ment to be the adaption of a A Christmas Carole but I don't think it ended up being anything like it, I've never been good at adaption of stories. Hope it is alright.**

**If there are any mistakes with the Tamora Pierce related things please let me know. **

**Disclaimer: If I owned and of the characters or the plot I would not be on fanfiction.**

The outside of Daja's house was decorated festively as Briar approached it with his arm wrapped around a young woman who he had become acquainted with at the markets when he went to pick up some metal for Daja. Hannah, the woman, was extremely pretty. Her hair fell in luscious black sheets which he found very attractive and her skin was soft and an ivory colour.

Briar had had strict instructions not to bring a date with him for their Midwinter feast, but they couldn't do anything about it. And having someone share his bed helped keep nightmares away at night better than the mind-healer treatment ever had. Though he had been told that the dreams would stop soon, but he didn't want to risk having them until the mind-healer was certian, his sisters could see them if he dreamed them and he didn't want them to be haunted by the images like he was, they were always worst in the dream.

But he could tell his sisters wouldn't stand for it when Hannah and he walked in. They all pursed their lips and exchanged suffering looks that he didn't appreciate very much. Sandry promptly sent to stock the fireplace, he worried seriously for Hannah's health as she was led away by Sandry to dry her coat before she caught a chill.

"No-one cares if I catch a chill." He sniffed with false hurt as he marched up to the chilly drawing room he was meant to heat. It would take him a while he noted. There was nothing left to start with since it had been burning all day without being tended.

"Briar, no–one cares because it is annoying to have to entertain the woman you bring around just to sleep with them." Tris snapped undaunted by Briar as he jerk back from the fireplace to glare at her as she stormed in. "Not to mention on today, a dinner that we planned to spend together. Alone."

"Coppercurls that's not fair. Daja brought Rizu to a private meal when we were in Namorn." He told her, irritated that she was going to chide him on Midwinter, but daunted slightly by her fury or calm fury as it seemed at the moment, he personally felt that the calm was scarier, like the calm before a storm.

"That wasn't a special occasion like now." She said as she took a breathe, struggling like she always did to not zap him with lightning. Finding it hard she leant against the door frame in an attempt to calm down. "And Daja was in love with her."

Briar rolled his eyes at her. "Who says I'm not in love with her?"

"The fact that you have a different woman in your bed almost every night. You change girls like I change clothes."

"Are you annoyed that I brought her tonight, or because you dislike my lifestyle?"

"I don't dislike your lifestyle or that fact that you brought her here tonight when we told you not to." She said and Briar looked relieved for a second before her brows furrowed like clouds. "I'm _disgusted _by both! And I'm going to leave now before I throw lightning at you, or do something I would prefer to do at the moment."

The door rattled as she slammed it on its hinges. Briar stared blankly at it not comprehending what she had said. Tris was strange, he thought to himself, sure you did what she told you not to do, but that was no excuse to go mental on him. But a nagging thought hide in the back of his mind, Tris had always disapproved of his relationships with woman, she was such a prude.

The door wasn't closed long before Daja came in, looking around the room as if surveying it for damage. Which she could well be since Tris hadn't been very discreet in her ranting. Volume wasn't something a mage as powerful as Tris would worry about. He speculate at whether there was a sheep somewhere in Emlean that hadn't heard her. Probally the sheep would be set straight by it's friends.

"Good, she didn't break anything." Daja said as she walked in the room, taking a seat across from Briars position at the fireplace. "For a second there I thought she might have killed you."

"She was angry enough." Briar said jokingly as he stood and walked to the window, closing it because a suspicious breeze had blown it open.

"Briar, is the mind-healer working?"

"What? Of course." He said, embarrassment clear in his voice which made her suspect that the reason he hadn't turned around was because he was flushed in the cheeks.

"Why is Hannah here then? I thought you would have stopped sleeping with women to chase of the _yerui_ a long time ago." Daja said with worry in her voice.

"You sound like the doctor and Tris." He told her with an annoyed voice.

"There both worried about you." She told him.

"Maybe I just like their company, okay? Why do you and Tris have such a big deal about it?" He said wheeling around on her, angry plain on his face. Briar was sick of her calm questions that prodded him in all the raw spots, just like the mind-healer. Why did people care if he slept with women? What was the big deal?

"I have don't like it because it is ruining my holiday." She told him. "But you know Tris; she was raised better than us." She told him and added; "Okay not better, just different." When she saw the reproachful look she got from him.

"So me being happy ruins this holiday for you?" Briar asked with his voice slowly rising.

"No, it ruins every day you bring someone different home with you. We have to deal with them when you're gone in the morning." Daja's voice still staying calm, she knew this would annoy him more than angry words. "Plus Briar, don't you want more? A real relationship? Instead of all this flirting and other things?"

"Maybe," He told her, criticism on what he was doing and not why was much more welcome. "But I'm fine how I am. I wouldn't even know how to start one like that. Why fix what isn't broken?"

"So you're not going to send Hannah home?" She waited for a while for Briar to remember the young woman's name before she shook her head sadly and left him feeling as if he was doing something wrong.

Again he didn't wait long before Sandry walked in to the room. Everyone seemed very interested in his life tonight; all of a sudden he was a horrible womanizing person. Maybe not all of a sudden, Tris had been complaining since they had returned from Namorn.

"I really think you should send that girl home Briar." Sandry said when she had taken the place that Daja had previously occupied. Picking up her spindle absently form where it had been placed when she had finished with it that afternoon.

"Why?" He asked irate by his sisters' persistence though he was starting to see their point. "Because I've done this every festival and you don't think it is helpful? Because I'm ruining your holiday?"

"No. Because Briar, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what your always got." Sandry said seriously, not looking at Briar as she spun thread smoothly over her spindle.

"Is that a stab at how I conduct my personal relations and how rude it was to bring Hannah? Or are you just giving my advice in general?" Briar asked as he looked out the window thoughtfully. Maybe his sisters were just worried about him.

Her silence was answer enough for him as he felt her eye dig into the back of his head. "Fine, you have all made your point. I'll take her home if it means that much to all of you." And apologies for ruining Hannah's plans for the night, Briar though ruefully to himself.

"It does. But it's alright; we sent her home an hour ago when you got here." Sandry said happily. Briar had a nagging feeling he had never had any control on how the argument with his sisters' was going to turn out. Voicing the idea to Sandry he was rewarded with an irritatingly knowing smile.

"Of course you had no choice. I'd though you knew me, us, better than that by now," She said as she placed her spindle and the spun thread next to it. As she walked to the door she turned to see why Briar wasn't following. "Coming? We don't want the food."

"Of course not, Lady Sandrilene fa Torin." He said cheekily as he walked past where she was standing in the doorway waiting for him. He hand flashed forward to smack him soundly on the back of his head, only just lightly enough as to not give him a concussion.

"None of that mister." Sandry said with mocking distain, drawing herself up to her full height, much lower than his, so she could look down her button nose at him. Briar in turn tweaked the end playfully, pulling it slightly as she yelled in outrage.

"You really should have taken me up on my offer to pull that everyday till you had a noble beak." He told her as he started down the stairs towards the delicious smelling food.

**Please R/R. Constructive criticism is always appreciated. **


End file.
